Monday, April 19, 2010

I would like to thank Chris over at http://sysengineers.wordpress.com for the excellent post on how to daemonize NDO2DB. His post NDO2DB startup script for RH (EL) / OEL does an excellent job getting everything working. I had to make one small change to the script as I kept my ndo2db executable as ndo2db-3x instead of just ndo2db.

For me this fixes a problem where I have to remember to manually start the ndo2db service after a server restart, which hasn't been happening the past few times. The second way I am going to fix this problem is by creating a checklist of things that need to happen during a server restart / boot up sequence for each PC. This will also reduce the effort needed for when I move the rack later this year. The third way I will be checking this is by adding a check to Nagios to make sure this is running at all times.

This also illustrates my general way of checking / double checking things. One go off of a checklist. The double check is to verify that Nagios is seeing the same thing.

Wednesday, April 07, 2010

I don't often gush about good experiences, but I recently had an issue with Spiceworks, which ended up being a configuration problem on my end. Not only did the Support Engineer help me with my issue but they also saw another configuration issue and made some recommendations on how to fix it. Additionally they told me about a bug in the software that I was not aware of that has been affecting the performance!

Also the support rep was able to do all of this and not make me feel like an idiot!

TL;DRHad a problem. It was fixed. Also fixed two other issues I didn't know I had!

Thursday, April 01, 2010

I know it has been a while since I have posted anything. I have been busy testing out backup and recovery software. The latest one is Acronis Backup and Recovery 10 Advanced Server. The management server is very easy to setup and configure. I had some issues however while installing the Agent for Linux. But with a little research I was able to find what I needed and get everything installed.

Step number one is to make sure you have the Kernel Development package for your kernel. The easiest way to find out which version you need is to run the command "uname -r". On one server I needed the "kernel-devel" package and on another I needed the "kernel-PAE-devel" package. So if you don't have them already install the correct one for your server.

After this is installed you can install another prerequisite package Dynamic Kernel Module Support Framework or DKMS for short. I got mine off of DAG's repo at http://dag.wieers.com/rpm/packages/dkms/. Once this is downloaded install the package.

The last prerequisite is an updated SnapAPI module. Thanks to the Acronis KB I was able to find the updated package at http://kb.acronis.com/sites/default/files/content/2009/10/4371/snapapi26_modules-0.7.47-1.noarch.rpm.

Now that we have all of the packages installed we can install the Agent for Linux. The install is rather painless, except the License Key that you have to type in, by hand, every time for the trial edition. Maybe its only a pain point for me because I had to do it so many times while trying to get it installed.